Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests.
Judas, the truth sold for money
What was his prompting principle?
(1) Not a Divine impulse;
(2) or sense of public duty;
(3) or malicious feeling towards Christ;
(4) but avarice.
A man, to commit this sin, must have-
(1) Truth at his disposal.
(2) A tempting offer.
(3) Deliberately accept the offer. (Homilist.)
Men may sell the truth for money who-
(1) Have no dislike to it;
(2) feel themselves under an obligation to it;
(3) have no intention of doing any injury to it: (Homilist.)
Emblem of avarice
Gotthold’s sons had purchased a savings-box, to keep the little sums of money they occasionally received. They soon found that, however easy to drop the pieces in, it was much more difficult to bring them out. He thereupon observed, “That is an emblem of the hearts and coffers of the vast majority of the men of these times. They are very greedy to take, but very backward to give, especially for the glory of God and the relief of the poor. Oh, how long we must shake, and how many arts we must try, before we can extract even a penny from a hard and penurious man, for the service of God or his neighbours! So long as he lives, he imagines that the business for which he came into the world is to collect and keep money; but when he has to leave the world, and when death breaks the savings-box to pieces, and he must resign his hoard to others, he does it with reluctance and displeasure. I really believe that, were it not too absurd and useless, many a miser, in making his will, would do what a miser once actually did-appoint himself his own heir. How dreadful a folly to hoard up gold, and to lose heaven.”